Picking Your Next Writing Project

And making sure it actually gets done

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

I have a confession. I’m a total magpie. Bright shiny object syndrome – in spades. I have too many ideas. Too many projects I’ve already started. Too many I want to get started on. Too much digital debris on my hard drive. Too much going on, in general.

So here’s my plan. I’m going to pick my next writing project. Then I’m going to start it, finish it and publish or submit it, before I move on to the next one.

It’s not that hard, but it’s not easy either. We creative types have idea after idea, entering our brain, tumbling over one another, shouting for attention.

But split attention is not your friend, and it’s definitely not mine. I know that. It’s why I quit my blogs to focus on just a few main writing platforms. It’s why I unpublished all my books (except one). It’s why I developed a way to store the truly ridiculous amount of ideas I have so I can work on them one by one.

So today, here’s what I’m doing (and I want you to do it with me):

1.        Take a deep breath (what the hell – while we’re here, let’s take several)

2.        Pick the most important writing project I need to work on right now

3.        Start work on it

4.        Finish work on it

5.        Polish it ‘til it shines

6.        Publish/submit it

7.        Repeat

(The one exception I’m allowing myself is that I can take a break between 4 and 5, during which I can work on another project – but only one.)

Number two is hard. But you can do it. Pick one. The one that’s most important, right now. It might be the one with an externally imposed deadline, or the one that makes your heart sing. There are different ways to be important.

We don’t have to write all the books, articles, essays or stories at the same time. Here at Change the World With Words we’re all about building a body of work to be proud of. And how do we build things? Brick by brick. Piece by piece. Word by word. Project by project.

The project you’re working on could be a blog post, a newsletter, a long-form essay or a book. And if it’s a book it’s okay to treat each chapter or section as a project, just to limit overwhelm.

In the middle of each project you’ll still get ideas for others. That’s fine. Record them. Park them for later. Then get back to what you’re working on.

Learn to feel like you’re ‘done’ rather than always, relentlessly, ‘doing’. And when you are done? Time for downtime. Just until it’s time to take your next set of deep breaths and start again.

Let me know how it goes.

Some thoughts from others I’ve been enjoying this week

• Self-Publishing Authors: You Only Have So Much Space & Time by

  J.R. Heimbigner

• How To (Not) Create A Lead Magnet: 3 Reasons Why Mine Failed by

  Claudia Faith

• 10 books that will rapidly improve your writing, help you make more impact, and motivate you to create by Alex Mathers

• On a Regular Basis, Repost Your Old Best Content by

  George Kao

• A New Book Launch Every Week by

  David McIlroy

What else I’ve been up to this week

Reading: The Last Law of Attraction Book You’ll Ever Need to Read by Andrew Kap (We’ll see, Andrew, we’ll see. I’ve only just started it. It was free with Prime Reading)

Watching: The Traitors

Enjoying: Drinking wine with friends on the beach

Not enjoying: Juggling too many deadlines

This week’s Medium post

(Friend link, of course, so you can read for free):

• Why I Don’t Care About Unfollows and Unsubscribes

That’s all for this week. If you’re reading this online, feel free to subscribe to get future posts straight to your inbox.

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